DEVI: Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness arises, th

[Guest guest]

4) Sri Cidagni-Kunda-sambhuta

— Born from the Pit of the Fire of Consciousness.

— Burns out ignorance and confers Immortality.

— She who rose from the fire of knowledge and is the ultimate truth.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

(Sri Lalita Sahasranama, C. S. Murthy, Assoc. Advertisers and

Printers, 1989.)

 

 

68) Sri Chakra-raja-ratha-rudha-sarvayudha-pariskrta

— Mounted on Sri Chakra inside body with all weapons i.e. Powers.

— Enlightens mind to realise Ultimate Reality as an All Pervading-

Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

207) Sri Manonmani

— Highest state of Consciousness.

— Secret name of Sri Durga.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

367) Sri Pratyak-Chiti-Rupa

 

— Inner Consciousness or Knowledge.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

404) Sri Bhakta-harda-tamo-bheda-bhanumad-bhanu- santaih

 

— Effulgence of the Sun; dispels Darkness of Ignorance.

— Giver of the Vision of the Ocean of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

573) Sri Prajnana Ghana-rupini

 

— Supreme Wisdom

— State of Consciousness where nothing else is experienced except

Self.

— " Like the taste of salt in the sea (It) is everywhere; Prajnana is

All Pervasive. " Brahadaranyaka Upanisad

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

669) Sri Annada

 

— The Giver of Food.

— Sustains Life and Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

739) Sri Layakari

 

—The Fifth State beyond Turiya.

—The State where individual and Cosmic Consciousness merge.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

807) Sri Param-dhama

 

— The Ultimate Light.

— The Ultimate Status

— 'Yadgatva na nivartante taddhama paramam mama'

" The State of Consciousness from which there is no return is My

Ultimate State. " (Bha. Gi. 16-6)

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

854) Sri Gambhira

 

— The Bottomless Lake.

— " The Ultimate Mother is to be visualised as a great and deep lake of

Consciousness, uncomprehended by Space and Time. " Siva Sutra 1.23

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

858) Sri Kalpana-rahita

 

— Pure Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

907) Sri Tattvamayi

— The Mother of the Ultimate State of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

" Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness

arises, there is no liberation. "

 

Devi

 

 

" All things are made of atoms. Stars are made of atoms. Humans are

made of atoms. When we look at a tree, we see ourselves. "

 

John Holland

 

 

" To say that consciousness evolved from matter is to say that a TV

evolved from a refrigerator. Such things do not happen. "

 

Cairns Smith, chemical evolutionist

 

 

" When science comes to eventually understand consciousness it will be

an achievement in the face of which every other achievement of

science will pale into insignificance. "

 

William James

 

 

" The physical basis of the mind is the brain action in each

individual. It accompanies the activity of the spirit, but the spirit

is free. It is capable of some degree of initiative. The spirit is

the man one knows. He must have continuity through periods of coma

and sleep. I assume then that the spirit must live on somehow after

death. I cannot doubt that many make contact with God and have

guidance from a greater spirit. If he had only a brain and not a

mind, this difficult decision would not be his. "

 

W. Penfield, one of the top neuroscientists of the century,

Science, the Ox, and the Spirit

 

 

" I went through my entire scientific career searching for life, but

now I see that life has somehow slipped through my fingers and all I

have is electrons, protons, and particles, which have no life at all.

So in my old age I am forced to retrace my steps. "

 

Szent-Giorgi, the Nobel laureate biologist

 

 

" The origin of species and of much of evolution appears to be due to

some organizing and partly intelligent spiritual agency associated

with the animal or plant, which controls its life processes and tends

to keep the being more or less adapted to its environment. But in

addition to this there seem to be other spiritual agencies of a much

higher type which have been responsible for what may be called

greater evolution ... These spiritual agencies appear to have worked

by directing from time to time the inferior agencies which are

associated with the animals and plants. "

 

Robert Broom, " Evolution—Is There Intelligence Behind It? " South

African Journal of science, Vol. 30 (October 1933), pp. 18-19.

 

 

" To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for

adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different

amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic

aberration, could nave been formed by natural selection, seems, I

freely confess, absurd in the highest degree. "

 

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, (New York: New American

Library, 1964), p. 168.

 

 

" It is difficult to discuss the beginning of the universe without

mentioning the concept of god. My work on the origin of the universe

is on the borderline between science and religion, but I try to stay

on the scientific side of the border. It is quite possible that god

acts in ways that cannot be described by scientific laws. "

 

Stephen Hawking, 2002

 

 

The cosmos " reveals an intelligence of such superiority that compared

with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an

utterly insignificant reflection. "

 

Albert Einstein

 

 

" If there is such an Infinite Being, and if... his will and purpose

is the increase of conscious beings, then we can hardly be the first

result of this purpose. We conclude, therefore, that there are now in

the universe infinite grades of power, infinite grades of knowledge

and wisdom, infinite grades of influence of higher beings upon lower.

Holding this opinion, I have suggested that this vast and wonderful

universe, with its almost infinite variety of forms, motions, and

reactions of parts upon part, from suns and systems up to plant-life,

animal-life, and the human living soul, has ever required and still

requires the continuous coordinated agency of myriads of such

intelligences. "

 

Alfred Russell Wallace, The World of Life (New York: Moffat, Yard &

Co., 1911), p. 431

 

 

" To understand the esoteric philosophy it is best to forget bodies

and to grip the essential consciousness of ourselves. The fatal error

of Western thought in all its departments of religion, philosophy and

science is that it concentrates on the body-aspects, therefore on the

transitory, the ever-changing. We have forgotten that the way by

which to understand ultimates is by facing and studying them; and the

ultimate of ultimates is the divine Selfhood, essential

consciousness. "

 

G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism,

Theosophical University Press, 1974

[Guest guest]

4) Sri Cidagni-Kunda-sambhuta

— Born from the Pit of the Fire of Consciousness.

— Burns out ignorance and confers Immortality.

— She who rose from the fire of knowledge and is the ultimate truth.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

68) Sri Chakra-raja-ratha-rudha-sarvayudha-pariskrta

— Mounted on Sri Chakra inside body with all weapons i.e. Powers.

— Enlightens mind to realise Ultimate Reality as an All Pervading-Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

207) Sri Manonmani

— Highest state of Consciousness.

— Secret name of Sri Durga.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

367) Sri Pratyak-Chiti-Rupa

 

— Inner Consciousness or Knowledge.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

404) Sri Bhakta-harda-tamo-bheda-bhanumad-bhanu- santaih

 

— Effulgence of the Sun; dispels Darkness of Ignorance.

— Giver of the Vision of the Ocean of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

573) Sri Prajnana Ghana-rupini

 

— Supreme Wisdom

— State of Consciousness where nothing else is experienced except Self.

— " Like the taste of salt in the sea (It) is everywhere; Prajnana is All

Pervasive. " Brahadaranyaka Upanisad

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

669) Sri Annada

 

— The Giver of Food.

— Sustains Life and Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

739) Sri Layakari

 

—The Fifth State beyond Turiya.

—The State where individual and Cosmic Consciousness merge.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

807) Sri Param-dhama

 

— The Ultimate Light.

— The Ultimate Status

— 'Yadgatva na nivartante taddhama paramam mama'

" The State of Consciousness from which there is no return is My Ultimate State. "

(Bha. Gi. 16-6)

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

854) Sri Gambhira

 

— The Bottomless Lake.

— " The Ultimate Mother is to be visualised as a great and deep lake of

Consciousness, uncomprehended by Space and Time. " Siva Sutra 1.23

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

858) Sri Kalpana-rahita

 

— Pure Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

907) Sri Tattvamayi

— The Mother of the Ultimate State of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama,

C. S. Murthy, Assoc. Advertisers and Printers, 1989.

 

DEVI: " Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness

arises, there is no liberation. "

 

>

> " To understand the esoteric philosophy it is best to forget bodies

> and to grip the essential consciousness of ourselves. The fatal

> error of Western thought in all its departments of religion,

> philosophy and science is that it concentrates on the body-aspects,

> therefore on the transitory, the ever-changing. We have forgotten

> that the way by which to understand ultimates is by facing and

> studying them; and the ultimate of ultimates is the divine

> Selfhood, essential consciousness. "

>

> G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism,

> Theosophical University Press, 1974

>

 

 

The Science of Consciousness

Part 1: Mind Over Matter!

 

What is mind? No matter!

What is matter? Never mind!

 

Even as scientists all over the world are making concerted efforts to

understand the human mind and the human consciousness, a plethora of

provocative questions still remain unanswered. As someone said, if we

could satisfactorily explain the workings of our minds, our brains

would be so simple and underdeveloped that we wouldn't be able to

understand anything! This is a definite limitation of the

conventional sciences. And here's where people take recourse to

spirituality, imagination and the occult.

 

Vedic Science Has the Answers!

Professor Ashok Sharma, a former Indian professor of Applied Physics,

who was also a scientist at Harvard University, has formulated some

path-breaking theories and postulations based on the ancient Vedic

Sciences that give us some powerful insights into the gray regions of

the human mind, and help us understand our consciousness.

 

Even after treading for long in the realm of science, Prof Sharma

feels that science fails to understand consciousness as an

independent entity. He says, " Science cannot integrate a non-physical

entity, like consciousness, into its conceptual framework, and views

human personality as a non-conscious physical system. "

 

What is Consciousness?

Consciousness, according to Prof Sharma, is a non-physical entity,

which is essentially different from the four basic entities of space,

time, energy and matter of the conventional science. Consciousness

does not have any physical attribute or property or action, but is

endowed with autonomous will power of creation, retention and

annihilation of the knowledge of an individual or that of the

universe.

 

Quoting the Upanishads (Shvetashwar, 6/19), he says that

consciousness itself is non-differentiable, inactive, placid,

indescribable and non associative:

 

" Nirajanam Nishkriam Shantam Nirvadyam Niranjanam "

 

But again, consciousness manifests itself in the form of knowledge.

 

Sharma's Formula

In the light of the above discussion, Prof Sharma has put forward a

formula, wherein consciousness is represented by a symbol , which is

a set of concepts of knowledge. In the normal state of consciousness,

an individual human mind or a conscious system is capable of the

finite set of concepts of knowledge I, i.e.,

 

,

 

which he defines as Ego, soul, Atman or Karan Sharir.

 

However, the field of the non-physical entity of consciousness can be

expanded to infinity, so as to cognize the total infinite set of

concepts of knowledge G, i.e.,

 

,

 

which he variously defines as God, Parmathma or Brahma.

 

Yoga & Meditation

Prof Sharma points out that consciousness is endowed with autonomous

will power, and the techniques of Yoga and meditation must be

considered as the methods of realization of the self and the

development of the will power (Sankalpa Shakti) for the expansion of

the field of consciousness .

 

Bridging the Gap

Sharma quotes Prof Wigner — " The very study of the physical world

leads to the conclusion that the concept of consciousness is an

ultimate reality and, all the possible knowledge, concerning objects

can be given as its wave function " — and concludes that the gap

between Vedic and scientific systems of knowledge has been

considerably reduced and scientists have started realizing the

necessity of integration of consciousness with the conceptual

structure of science.

 

Part 2: The Divine Formulae!

 

The basic conceptual structure of Prof Ashok Sharma's " Science of

Consciousness " can be summarized as a set of the following

propositions:

 

In Summary

 

The element of consciousness (Chetan Tatva) is the fundamental

entity, which is non-physical, inactive, placid, indescribable and

non-associative, but endowed with autonomous will power (Swasankalpa

Shakti) to create, retain and annihilate all concepts of knowledge of

self and the universe, which can be represented by the symbol . The

concept of consciousness is, essentially, analogous to the vacuum

states of the relativistic quantum field theory, except for its

autonomous will power.

 

The phenomena of existence of the world are, essentially, the

existence of the concepts of knowledge of the phenomenal world in the

unified field of consciousness. In view of the non-physical nature of

the consciousness, the concept of the unified field of consciousness

must be clearly distinguished from the unified field of the physical

fields.

 

The stimulus-response function of the conscious system of human

personality is due to the association of consciousness, with

physiological brain, so as to provide the operation of

mind, 'Ideation Body' or Karan Sharir. In the normal state of

consciousness , an individual is ignorant about his full

potentialities and depends on the knowledge gained through the

sensory perception for the expansion of the field of consciousness of

knowledge. Since, in the normal state of consciousness, an individual

has the capacity of the cognition of a limited set I of the concepts

of knowledge, it can be defined as Soul, 'Ideation Body', Atma or

Karan Sharir, represented by, .

 

The field of consciousness can be expanded by the development of the

capability of non-sensory intuitive cognition of knowledge through

the techniques of Yoga and meditation, so as to attain the super-

conscious state, in which an individual has direct intuitive

revelation of knowledge. The final state of Yogic attainment is to

have the consciousness of the infinite set of knowledge of the

universe, i.e., , which can be interpreted as the realization of God,

Allah, Paramatma or Brahma.

 

The Future of Science!

Prof Sharma, who now lives in New Delhi, is currently working on the

conceptual development of the Science of Consciousness, Social System

Science and Social Engineering. He hopes that the heritage of the

Vedic system of knowledge should be viewed as the future extension of

the present non-conscious science, as the science of consciousness.

 

Need of the Hour

" There is an urgent need to reinterpret the Vedic texts in modern

terms — a task which is now possible with the availability of

computers and the recent developments in the fields of cognitive

sciences, artificial intelligence and theories of knowledge

representation " , says Prof Sharma, adding, " However, such an effort

requires a concerted effort of the enlightened community of Indians. "

 

http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa072101a.htm

[Guest guest]

4) Sri Cidagni-Kunda-sambhuta

— Born from the Pit of the Fire of Consciousness.

— Burns out ignorance and confers Immortality.

— She who rose from the fire of knowledge and is the ultimate truth.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

68) Sri Chakra-raja-ratha-rudha-sarvayudha-pariskrta

— Mounted on Sri Chakra inside body with all weapons i.e. Powers.

— Enlightens mind to realise Ultimate Reality as an All Pervading-

Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

207) Sri Manonmani

— Highest state of Consciousness.

— Secret name of Sri Durga.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

367) Sri Pratyak-Chiti-Rupa

 

— Inner Consciousness or Knowledge.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

404) Sri Bhakta-harda-tamo-bheda-bhanumad-bhanu- santaih

 

— Effulgence of the Sun; dispels Darkness of Ignorance.

— Giver of the Vision of the Ocean of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

573) Sri Prajnana Ghana-rupini

 

— Supreme Wisdom

— State of Consciousness where nothing else is experienced except

Self.

— " Like the taste of salt in the sea (It) is everywhere; Prajnana is

All

Pervasive. " Brahadaranyaka Upanisad

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

669) Sri Annada

 

— The Giver of Food.

— Sustains Life and Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

739) Sri Layakari

 

—The Fifth State beyond Turiya.

—The State where individual and Cosmic Consciousness merge.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

807) Sri Param-dhama

 

— The Ultimate Light.

— The Ultimate Status

— 'Yadgatva na nivartante taddhama paramam mama'

" The State of Consciousness from which there is no return is My

Ultimate State. "

(Bha. Gi. 16-6)

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

854) Sri Gambhira

 

— The Bottomless Lake.

— " The Ultimate Mother is to be visualised as a great and deep lake of

Consciousness, uncomprehended by Space and Time. " Siva Sutra 1.23

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

858) Sri Kalpana-rahita

 

— Pure Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

 

 

907) Sri Tattvamayi

— The Mother of the Ultimate State of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama,

C. S. Murthy, Assoc. Advertisers and Printers, 1989.

 

DEVI: " Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness

arises, there is no liberation. "

 

>

> " To understand the esoteric philosophy it is best to forget bodies

> and to grip the essential consciousness of ourselves. The fatal

> error of Western thought in all its departments of religion,

> philosophy and science is that it concentrates on the body-aspects,

> therefore on the transitory, the ever-changing. We have forgotten

> that the way by which to understand ultimates is by facing and

> studying them; and the ultimate of ultimates is the divine

> Selfhood, essential consciousness. "

>

> G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism,

> Theosophical University Press, 1974

>

 

Hindu Philosophy Of The Mind And Consciousness

Edited by Henry Swift

 

 

 

http://www.swcp.com/~hswift/swc/Summer99/bhaska9901.htm

 

Ed: The following (with permission) is Part 1 of an article by Swami

Bhaskarananda in the Winter 1988 issue of Global Vedanta, a

publication of the Vedanta Society of Washington State. It contains

discussions relevant to the subjects of this bulletin. Part 2 will

follow in a later SWC bulletin issue.

 

Swami Pavitrananda, a scholarly saint of the Vedanta order, worked in

New York for many years until his death in 1977. Once he had an

interesting conversation with the well-known psychologist C. J. Jung.

The entire conversation was first published in the journal Voice of

India under the title An Evening with Professor D. J. Jung [ see

Global Vedanta Vol. 1, No. 1] Jung approved the ensuing article given

below, prior to its later publication.

 

In the publication, Pavitrananda said to Professor Jung:

 

Some psychoanalysts try to prove that the only concern of man is sex.

But man is more than food and raiment; man is even more than food and

sex. I was glad to read some years ago wherein you stated that the

dominating factor in man's life is spiritual yearning. I was

surprised that you could say that. (Professor Jung) replied, " yes, I

feel that way. But because 'I say that I have to pay a heavy price, people are

against me, they criticize me, they write all manner of things against me. I am

fighting against great odds -- all alone.

 

" .The fact is " , said the professor in an animated tone, " many of the

psychoanalysts come into contact with people of gross materialistic

minds, whose only concern in life is sense pleasure, people who are

morbid in their natures, what higher things can you expect from the

analysis of such minds?

 

" .You see [continued] the professor, " in the west religion has failed

and men can no longer think in terms of spirit. Religion has become

the garment of hypocrisy and insincerity. As a result, everywhere

people shudder at the name of religion and they cannot think of

spiritual matters, Some say " Bolshevism will be fit substitute for

religion, while some, turning to psychology, lose themselves in the

dark alleys and blind lanes of the underworld of the mind. "

 

Since this conversation took place nearly sixty years ago, Prof.

Jung's views about psychology have gained acceptance and admiration

from an increasing number of academics all over the world.

 

Nevertheless, this conversation symbolizes the difference between

Hindu and Western psychology. While, generally speaking, Western

psychology tends to not have much relevance to religion, Hindu

psychology is directly connected with religion. Its aim is to help

people experience God or the indwelling Divine Spirit. The materials

of Hindu psychology are scattered all over the scriptures and

religious philosophies of Hinduism. Most contributors have come from

Hindu Sages and Saints. The great Sage Pantanjali, who lived around

150 BC, may be called the first renowned Hindu psychologist of

ancient India. Yet before Guatama Buddha, who lived nearly 2,600 years ago,

Hindus had definite and practical ideas about applied psychology.

 

 

The Concept of Mind According To Hindu Psychology

 

Let me first start with the Hindu concept of mind, As the story goes,

a Western philosopher was once asked, " What is mind? " He replied, " No

matter. " He was asked again, What is matter? " And he replied " Never

mind " . The implication of what the philosopher said was that mind is

not matter. Hindu philosophy emphatically declares that mind is

matter -- although extremely subtle matter. Hindu psychology does not

see any difference between matter and energy. Hindus recognize

psychic energy, which they considered to be the manifestation of the

cosmic energy called Prana, long before Professor Jung felt the need

for a concept of psychic energy. The oldest school of religious

philosophy, the Sankya school, which is several thousand years old --

saw no difference between matter and energy. (Ed: nor later did

Einstein!)

 

In addition, the Yoga school of Panatanjali talks about the

astounding powers that the mind can acquire when it is fully

controlled and concentrated.

 

Hindu psychology recognized three states of mind --

 

the unconscious or the subconscious,

the conscious, and

the superconscious.

 

When the mind is in the superconscious state it is said to be in

Samadhi. In this state the mind becomes thoroughly illumined by

experiencing Divinity and transcends the limitations of the nervous

system. Swami Vivekenanda (1863-1902) in his book Raja Yoga has

explained this superconscious state of mind as follows:

 

There is a still higher plane upon which the mind can work, It can go

beyond consciousness, Just as unconscious work is beneath

consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness,

and which is not accompanied with the feeling of egoism. The feeling

of egoism is only on the middle plane. By the effects, by the results

of the work, we know that which is below, and that which is above.

When a man goes into deep sleep he enters a plane beneath

consciousness, He works the body, perhaps in his sleep, without the

accompanying feeling of ego; he is unconscious, and when he returns

from his sleep he is the same man who went into it.

 

The sum total of the knowledge, which he had before he went into

sleep, remains the same; it does not increase at all. But when a man

goes into Samadi, if he goes into it a fool, he comes out a sage.

 

Professor Jung, in his book Integration of the Personality, has

mentioned that the Samadhi experience which the Hindu yogis have is

not superconsciousness experience but, " .it seems to be equivalent to

an unconscious state. " (1) With all due respect to Professor Jung, I

have to say that his view will be quite unacceptable to the great

Hindu spiritually illumined souls -- both ancient and modern -- like

Panatanjali, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekenanda, Ramana Maharshi and

others -- who have had that superconscious experience called Samadhi.

In the highest type of Samadhi one experiences Brahman, the very

source of all kinds of consciousness. They also claim that by

following the approved techniques offered by Hinduism anyone who is

sincere and hard working can have the Samadhi experience.

 

 

The Hindu Concept of Consciousness

 

As mentioned earlier. Unlike Western psychologists, Hindu

psychologists hold that consciousness has its independent existence

in 'Brahmin. According to them, consciousness is not the neuro-

activities of the central nervous system. Nor do they accept the

neuro-psychologists' view that mind is a function or process created

by the brain. Had the idea of the neuro-psychologists been correct,

they would better be able to explain what memory is.

 

But they cannot convincingly explain where the different data are

preserved in the form of memory. Hindu psychologists hold " that there

is a permanent receptacle of the residues of experiences which is the

mind.(2) " Mind in Hindu psychology is called the inner instrument or

antahkarana in Sanskrit. As this inner organ becomes conscious by

borrowing consciousness from the only source which is Brahmin or

Divinity. Divinity is all pervading. It is present behind everything

and every being. Divinity is present behind every body-mind complex

as the substratum, just as the movie screen exists behind the motion

picture. The existence of the motion picture is possible only when

there is the existence of the movie screen. From the standpoint of

individuals Divinity is the very core of their being. It is then

called the indwelling Divine Self or the Atman. Another aspect of

Divinity is infinite bliss.

 

The purpose of Hindu philosophy is to help people attain spiritual

enlightenment through Samadhi. And to achieve that goal subjective

and intuitive methods alone are employed. So-called objective methods

are not used because experimental and inferential methods depend on

human interpretation, which can easily be colored by the minds of the

interpreters. And as such, they cannot be called purely objective. As

no knowledge can be acquired without mind, great emphasis is put by

the Hindus on improving the quality of the mind.

 

Hindu psychology prescribes techniques to improve the quality of the

mind by making it pure.

 

 

Pure mind -- what it is

 

A pure mind alone can have super-conscious experience or the

experience of Samadhi. Ice, water, and water vapor are one and the

same substance. Yet judging by the amount of freedom enjoyed by them

water vapor is far superior to the other two. If I put a chunk of ice

in this lecture hall it won't be able to move. It has very little

freedom of movement. If I apply heat to this chunk of ice it will

melt and become water. Then it can spread out and flow. Water

undoubtedly has more freedom of locomotion than ice, Now let me heat

up the water until all of it is transformed into water vapor. It can

now spread out everywhere; it can even fill up this entire hall and

reach all four walls, Water vapor has much more freedom of movement

than ice or water, Not only has it great freedom of movement, but it

also is invisible!

 

So also is mind. Ordinary mind is like ice or water. Due to its

limitations it cannot have super-conscious experience. On the other

hand, the pure mind is like water vapor. It is free of limitations

and is capable of having super-conscious experience, or Samadhi.

 

 

Hindu Concepts of the Subconscious Mind

 

Before the well-known French psychologists Charcot and Janet

recognized the existence of the subconscious state of mind the west

was interested only in the conscious state of mind. Later Freud, Jung

and others concluded that the larger portion of the mind is like the

submerged portion of an iceberg. It is unknown to us. But Hindu

psychology, long before the birth of Christ, was aware of the

subconscious or unconscious state of mind. Panatanjali explained this

unconscious state of mind as a storehouse of all past thoughts or

samskaras.

 

These samskaras have the ability to generate tendencies in the

conscious plane of the mind. Borrowing a mathematical term, if we

call each of these samskaras a vector then the resultant effect of

all these will be seen as tendencies in the conscious mind. In the

words of Swami Vivekenanda:

 

Every work that we do, every moment of he day, every thought we

think, leaves an impression on the mind-stuff [the internal organ or

antahkarana], and even when such impressions are not obvious on the

surface they are sufficiently strong to work beneath the surface,

man's character is determined by the sum total of these impressions.

(3)

 

 

References

 

1) Integration of the personality, page 15, Carl J.Jung,MD,

translated by Stanley Dell

 

2) Hindu Psychology -- Its meaning for the West. Page 26, Swami

Akhilananda. Publishers: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1960

 

3) The Complete works of Swami Vivekenanda, Vol.1, p 52